Bitcoin Makes The World Go 'Round, Following Miami Event, Showing Proof That Crypto is More Than A 'Trend'; It's the Future

Since late last year, Bitcoin BTC/USD has seen a wild ride, setting price records, despite a dramatic plunge from $64,000 in April to $36,000. It’s no hype, and Miami’s recent Bitcoin 2021 event was more than proof of that. It was an industry-wide statement of support for crypto.

Last week was the largest Bitcoin event in the world, bringing more than 12,000 people, comprised of Wall Street bankers, institutional investors, senators, and media to Miami. This was the first major-in person business conference since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As investment firms scramble to add cryptocurrency coins and related stocks to their clients’ portfolios, one Miami-based investor has chosen to go all in, focusing on cryptocurrency exclusively, but with a simple approach.

Jeff Sekinger, 27, is the founder and CEO of Zero Percent, a consulting company, which helps individuals and entrepreneurs leverage credit to create income and build long-term wealth with the goal of seeing clients achieve financial independence. He is also the founder and CEO of Orca Capital, a multiple eight-figure cryptocurrency hedge fund with clients worldwide.

But how has the Florida-based cryptocurrency investment fund outperformed Bitcoin, while positioning itself for continued growth in the coming years? Benzinga spoke with Sekinger about the recent Bitcoin 2021 event and the increasing growth of Orca Capital.

Photo Courtesy of Orca Capital/Photo Submission

“100% of our allocation is in cryptocurrency,” Sekinger told Benzinga. “And we are not choosing to buy risky coins. Out of the 9,666 crypto coins in circulation, only 15 are in our fund and Bitcoin is currently our largest allocation.”

In just two years of its inception, Orca Capital Fund LP had approximately $40 million under management, outperforming Bitcoin by 58% in the first four months of 2021. Sekinger anticipates having $150 million in assets under management by the end of the fiscal year.

“By limiting the number of digital assets we hold, we can closely monitor the people behind the project, the token metrics and utility of the coins in order to make prudent decisions"

Sekinger first took notice of cryptocurrency back in 2013 when he started buying Bitcoin. He later sold his investment but returned to it in 2016, believing that the asset class was picking up steam as “more of an investment class, as opposed to just a peer-to-peer payment system.”

Orca Capital’s mission in staying “hyper-focused” on specific coins addresses the realities the industry brings when it comes to garbage-like projects. “I truly believe the vast majority of the coins are garbage, as they do not have true utility,” Sekinger says. “After doing our research and due diligence, we have found that we only believe in 15 coins as real investments. Some of our top holdings include BTC, BNB, ETH, LINK, ADA, SOL, ect.”

FINRA Compliance

Of course, with any cryptocurrency hedge fund, staying in compliance with current regulations is of utmost importance.

Orca Capital, a Regulation D hedge fund is governed pursuant to SEC Rule 506(c), in addition to being regulated by FINRA, rather than the SEC, until it has over $150M AUM.

FINRA is a not-for-profit entity that is not part of the government, unlike the SEC, which is a government organization that is designed to protect investors and ensure the integrity of the securities market. The SEC, however, oversees FINRA and acts as the first level of appeal for actions brought by FINRA.

Rule 506(c) of Regulation D, allows for a "general solicitation" for Regulation D Offerings, where only accredited investors may purchase the securities offered under 506(c). 

“We are a US based fund, so all of our accounts are institutionally verified with US regulated exchanges. We also pay for our fund to be audited every full calendar year.”

Both Sekinger and his business partner, Austin Barnard own around one-third of the current fund, expecting to have $1 billion in assets in the next four years and $4 billion in assets over ten years. Retirement accounts, according to Sekinger, are one of the largest niches that have assisted in Orca Capital’s recent growth.

“Cryptocurrency is here to stay,”  Sekinger said. “This is a long-term investment strategy; it’s not a trend.”

Personal Growth and Road to Recovery

But Sekinger’s mission in helping clients achieve financial independence wasn’t an overnight success, as he had to overcome his own first.

As a high school athlete, Sekinger suffered an injury that tore all of the muscles in his ribs. Subsequently put on medication, Sekinger, like many Americans today, became addicted to the opioids he was prescribed while simultaneously working in the investment industry, falling victim to the opioid crisis plaguing our nation, beginning with Ohio as its capital.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to two entrepreneurial parents, he and his family moved to Columbus, Ohio at five-years old. However, remembering his parent’s soon-after divorce, he noted how that divorce affected his family’s finances, forcing Sekinger to move into a small apartment with his dad, and a small house with his mom. “I knew that the closer I could get to money, the more security and less stress I would feel; I realized that I developed my drive for financial success from seeing both sides of what money (and a lack thereof) brought to the household,” he said.

After years of borrowing money from others to feed his expensive opioid addiction, Sekinger sought out recovery  at Cornerstone of Recovery, eventually rebranding himself as a strategic financial consultant, instructing others on how to leverage their credit through strategic 0% financing, a method that helps fund a person with 0% interest credit, and allows them to stay at 0% interest for up to three to five years.

Sekinger’s health issues came at the same time he was working as an asset manager at JPMorgan Chase. “The experience at JPMorgan was a great one, despite my health issues I was also working to overcome,” he told us. “I came to the realization that part of the reason why I was using was due to the fact that I was not passionate and excited about what I was doing with my life. After I went to a rehabilitation center in early 2018, I realized that the entrepreneurial bug was in me and I desperately needed to pursue it. I decided to quit corporate life and go all in on entrepreneurship and ended up founding Orca Capital four months later.”

The road to recovery, of course, was no easy task, which played into Sekinger’s mission of achieving his own financial freedom, while also working towards helping others achieve their own.

“It played a major role. I was in a terrible financial situation myself so after learning and implementing the strategies to not only get me out of debt and raise my credit score but also be in the position to quit my job, I decided to turn my problem into my purpose and assist others with similar financial growth.”